Chapter Summaries

Harry and the wizards gathered at the Dursleys' house, where awkward conversation and mistaken assumptions complicated their plans. The chapter ended with Uncle Vernon trying to leave, only for Ron's father to tell him to stay and eat.

• Fred, George, and Percy returned home with Mrs. Weasley, Draco's mother went home, and Dudley was sent to Aunt Marge's.
• Sirius, Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Malfoy sat with Harry, Ron, and Draco in the Dursleys' living room, where the boys searched for signs of Harry's former life.
• Uncle Vernon offered the guests Petunia's beef pies, and Mr. Weasley became distracted by the Dursleys' electrical appliances.
• Mr. Malfoy reminded Mr. Weasley why they had come, and Draco explained that his father's polite treatment of Ron's father showed how much he had changed.
• Mr. Weasley mistook the tension between Harry, Ron, and Draco for a love triangle and concluded that Lucius Malfoy had become his in-law.
• Uncle Vernon brought out the food and tried to leave, but Mr. Weasley told him to stay and eat.

Dumbledore arrived at the Dursleys’ home and explained why Harry had been left there and how his mother’s protective magic also protected the family. Vernon tried to throw Harry out, but Dumbledore warned that the protection would vanish if Harry left; Vernon stormed upstairs while the visitors remained in the house.

• Dumbledore arrived at the Dursleys’ house and asked Sirius where Petunia and Dudley were.
• Dumbledore stopped Sirius and Lucius from insulting Vernon, then entered and told Arthur and Lucius that Harry should not leave his relatives.
• Dumbledore told Vernon that Harry had been neglected and abused, but that staying with the Dursleys had kept Lily’s protective magic in effect.
• Dumbledore revealed that a wizard had attacked the Dursleys and that Dudley still carried the wizard’s magic.
• Vernon blamed Harry for Dudley’s transformation and ordered Harry to leave, but Dumbledore explained that Harry’s presence protected the Dursleys.
• Vernon let the visitors use the sitting room and stormed upstairs.

Sirius, Mr. Malfoy, and Mr. Weasley gathered with Dumbledore to discuss photographs suggesting Harry, Draco, and Ron had romantic feelings for one another. The boys denied Rita Skeeter’s account, but the adults revealed more photographs that seemed to show they had been closely watched and cared for.

• Dumbledore used his wand to rearrange Aunt Petunia’s living room so everyone could eat together while Sirius prepared to explain the adults’ secret discussion.
• Mr. Malfoy said the matter concerned Draco, Ron, and Harry, and argued with Sirius and Mr. Weasley about their sons’ futures and romantic preferences.
• Sirius showed Dumbledore a stack of photographs, and Dumbledore suggested asking Harry and the others before judging them.
• Harry, Draco, and Ron rejected Rita Skeeter’s report, while Draco’s father praised his skill at lying and produced another stack of photographs.
• Harry, Draco, and Ron realized the photographs showed people had been paying them close attention, and Dumbledore remarked that Harry had received a great deal of care.

Harry and Draco faced questions about their relationships after photographs of Harry appeared, while Harry hid the Phoenix living in his heart. The group accepted their explanations, but Dumbledore stayed behind until Petunia and the others returned, and Sirius vanished to retrieve them.

• Harry, Ron, and Draco insisted they were just friends until Draco admitted he liked Pansy.
• Mr. Malfoy announced that he would arrange Draco’s engagement to Pansy, and Dumbledore was drawn into the marriage discussion.
• Harry explained that the photographs showed Ron and Draco checking his health after a long run, and revealed that Sirius had given them the pictures.
• Sirius said Rita Skeeter had taken the photographs, while Dumbledore suspected she was an unregistered Animagus but kept the suspicion to himself.
• Dumbledore told the group to leave and said he would remain until Petunia and the others returned, so Sirius vanished to bring them back.

Harry recalled Aunt Marge’s cruelty while Dumbledore explained Apparition and warned him about trying it alone. Sirius returned with Petunia and Dudley, then left with Dumbledore, leaving Harry and Dudley alone together.

• Harry remembered Aunt Marge’s past abuse and suspected Sirius had taken revenge on her during his visit.
• Dumbledore explained Apparition, the three Ds, and the danger of being Splinched, while warning Harry not to attempt it himself.
• Sirius returned with Petunia and Dudley, who were pale and sick from Side-Along Apparition.
• Dumbledore restored the sitting room, then left with Sirius after Sirius promised to collect Harry in a month.
• Petunia avoided speaking to Harry, and Harry and Dudley greeted each other awkwardly.

Harry saw the Dursleys become more accepting of magic as Dudley changed, and learned that Sirius had arranged for him to cast spells freely at home. The chapter ended with Harry preparing to leave for Sirius’s home on July 21.

• Harry noticed that the Dursleys no longer singled him out and allowed him to keep his magical belongings in his room.
• Aunt Petunia recalled Lily’s magic and revealed her jealousy and regret over never having magic herself.
• Dudley used Engorgio to enlarge Uncle Vernon’s dress robe, then embraced his parents as they celebrated his magic.
• An owl delivered Sirius’s letter, which told Harry that his spellcasting would be registered as Sirius’s and that Sirius would collect him on July 21.
• Harry explained the letter’s contents, and Dudley confirmed that wizarding children could use magic at home.

Ryan wondered what to do next and became curious about the coming school year and Voldemort’s Horcruxes. Meanwhile, Dumbledore performed a dark ritual beneath Hogwarts, and the black notebook transformed into a sixteen-year-old boy.

• Harry wrote to Ron and Draco about Apparition and learned that students had to take a paid Ministry course to learn it.
• Harry, Ron, and Draco arranged to visit Black House on July 21, while Draco said he wanted to see Ron's father's workshop the following summer.
• Ryan spent time alone watching events involving the Weasleys and Malfoys, then wondered what goals remained for him.
• Ryan considered whether Voldemort could sense the destruction of a Horcrux and grew curious about what would happen in the next school year.
• Dumbledore used a black notebook, a patterned metal plate, flowing mercury, and immobilized Highland Cattle in a ritual beneath Hogwarts.
• Dumbledore completed the ritual, and a sixteen-year-old boy with glossy black hair and a silver prefect's badge appeared.

Dumbledore summoned a new, independent Tom Riddle from the diary and offered him a chance to begin again as Hogwarts’s Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Tom accepted Dumbledore’s offer, and they vanished together.

• Tom Riddle manifested in the underground space, and Dumbledore greeted him by name.
• Tom mocked the ritual that had given him independence while binding him to Dumbledore’s supervision.
• Dumbledore urged Tom to cherish his new life and argued that he had retained a conscience, citing the children he had intimidated and his lack of intent to kill Myrtle.
• Dumbledore offered Tom the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching post as a chance to begin anew, warning that the other Tom would not tolerate his existence.
• Tom hesitated, took Dumbledore’s arm, and vanished with him.

In Dumbledore’s office, the portraits reacted with alarm as he asked the sixteen-year-old Riddle to prepare Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson plans. Riddle warned them that Voldemort had targeted Florean Fortescue, then learned that Harry had defeated Voldemort and Quirrell.

• Ryan watched the conversation in Dumbledore’s office while stroking the sleeping Jerry.
• Phineas and Armando Dippet realized that Riddle was the diary’s missing soul fragment and warned Dumbledore against using him.
• Dumbledore told Riddle to prepare lesson plans for Years One through Seven, prompting the portraits to protest his plan to make Voldemort a professor.
• Riddle warned that Voldemort had targeted Florean Fortescue because of his knowledge of obscure history, so Dexter Fosco decided to warn his descendant.
• Riddle asked what Dumbledore meant about there already being one professor that year and another the next, and Dumbledore explained that Voldemort had possessed Quirrell and would teach in 1992–1993.
• Dumbledore told Riddle that Harry had defeated Quirrell and Voldemort, forcing Voldemort to flee.

Tom Riddle questioned Dumbledore about Harry Potter and the circumstances of Voldemort’s defeat, then challenged Dumbledore’s account of love’s power by explaining Gormlaith Gaunt’s history. He left the conversation insisting that family affection, rather than love as magic, had caused Gormlaith’s downfall.

• Tom Riddle learned that Harry Potter was a Hogwarts professor and had defeated Voldemort, and he asked to meet him.
• Dumbledore explained that Lily Potter’s sacrifice caused Voldemort’s curse to rebound and argued that love was a form of magic.
• Dumbledore began recounting Gormlaith Gaunt’s defeat, but Riddle corrected him and took over the story.
• Riddle explained that Gormlaith killed her sister Leona and William Sayre, then raised their daughter Isolt as a pure-blood supremacist.
• Isolt escaped to the Americas, married James Stuart, and founded a family with adopted sons Chadwick and Webber Boot.
• Gormlaith attacked Isolt’s family, but the boys’ wands and the twins’ cries gave Isolt time to fight back, and William the Pukwudgie killed Gormlaith with a poisoned arrow.

Dumbledore explained why he had appointed Riddle as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, beginning with the curse Riddle had placed on the course. Riddle questioned whether that reason alone justified letting him act independently.

• Dumbledore told Riddle that Harry’s power came from Lily’s love, which had been engraved into Harry and had caused Riddle’s defeat and retreat.
• Riddle eagerly accepted the Defense Against the Dark Arts post and asked where his room was, but Dumbledore insisted on explaining his reasons first.
• Dumbledore explained that Riddle’s curse on the Defense Against the Dark Arts course could only be ended by making Riddle its professor.
• Riddle admitted that he had cursed the course after Hogwarts rejected his job application, using the authority he had gained from Slytherin’s Chamber of Secrets.
• Riddle challenged Dumbledore, asking whether the curse alone explained his freedom to act and pointing out that Dumbledore would not use unjust means to extend his life.

Dumbledore explained why he had made Riddle independent: Harry was also a Horcrux, and Riddle’s independence meant Harry would not have to be sacrificed. He hoped Riddle and Harry would shape the wizarding world’s future, then revealed that Magician had taken the Philosopher’s Stone.

• Riddle warned Dumbledore that he would keep his Horcruxes and might only help destroy Voldemort’s main body.
• Dumbledore revealed that Harry was Riddle’s Horcrux and explained that his independence allowed Harry to live while preserving Riddle’s immortality.
• Dumbledore said he hoped Riddle would abandon his misguided path and that he wanted the younger generation to decide the wizarding world’s future.
• Riddle urged Dumbledore to use the Philosopher’s Stone to extend his life, but Dumbledore revealed that Magician had taken it.
• Dumbledore showed Riddle Magician’s image and suggested he had come from the moon, while Riddle questioned the claim and praised Magician’s magic.

Dumbledore questioned Riddle about his ignorance of Muggle knowledge and discovered that Riddle believed a false pure-blood account of how the Earth and wizards came to be. The exchange left Dumbledore convinced that Riddle needed to study Muggle Studies before teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts.

• The chapter revealed that Riddle had once neglected his studies at Wool's Orphanage, then began reading and studying after learning that education could bring status and wealth.
• After arriving at Hogwarts, Riddle continued reading Magic Books but dismissed Muggle knowledge and did not take Muggle Studies as an elective.
• Dumbledore asked Riddle about the Earth, and Riddle claimed that ancient wizards had reshaped a flat world beneath a round sky and that wizards weakened through interbreeding with Muggles.
• Ryan recognized Riddle's explanation as misinformation and explained that wizards had originated among Muggles and that bloodline degeneration had another cause.
• Dumbledore challenged Riddle's claims and told him he needed to catch up on Muggle Studies before becoming a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
• Aunt Muriel called Dumbledore's mother dreadful and Muggle-born, while Doge protested that Kendra had never claimed otherwise.

Ryan watched Dumbledore challenge Riddle’s belief that wizards had shaped the universe and realized that reaching lv6 required a personal philosophy that could reshape how a wizard understood the world. He recognized his own belief in magic as limitless miracles, and his status changed to Demigod as his thinking skill reached lv6.

• Dumbledore showed Riddle a model of the solar system and argued that Muggles had reached the moon through technology beyond the abilities of wizards.
• Riddle insisted that wizards had altered the universe, then agreed to learn Muggle Studies and asked Dumbledore to take him to Diagon Alley for a wand and supplies.
• Ryan ended his viewing of the scene and concluded that belief and philosophy, rather than knowledge or magical power alone, enabled a wizard to reach lv6.
• Ryan identified his own philosophy as the belief that magic was limitless and realized Hogwarts held the nourishment he needed to grow.
• Ryan’s status panel changed his race from Wizard to Demigod and showed thinking at lv6, while ordinary skills below lv6 no longer appeared.

Ryan reached the realm of the Transcendent as he reflected on his divine power and Bleach’s limits. Meanwhile, Tom Riddle reconsidered his theories about bloodlines and magic, then went to sleep before his trip to Diagon Alley with Dumbledore.

• Ryan recognized that mastering a field at lv5 made a wizard a god, and that his own abilities had advanced beyond those of ordinary demigods.
• Ryan learned that Bleach was lv7, below the unattained lv8 realm, and believed he could hide from him using the moon’s domain.
• Tom Riddle recalled tracing his ancestry to the Gaunts, discovering his Muggle father, and murdering his father and grandparents.
• Tom Riddle connected himself, Harry Potter, Dumbledore, and Severus Snape, wondering whether their mixed parentage explained their talents and magical preferences.
• Tom Riddle stood up, pondered the principle behind the four wizards’ differences and his new wand, then went to sleep before the trip to Diagon Alley.

Dumbledore took Riddle through Diagon Alley to Ollivander's Wand Shop, drawing curious looks and rumors from the locals. Ollivander recognized Riddle as Voldemort but composed himself and began measuring him for a wand.

• Leaky Cauldron regulars speculated that the boy accompanying Dumbledore was his hidden child, while Riddle joked about the rumors and Rita Skeeter's reporting.
• Riddle spotted a flash of platinum-blond hair as he and Dumbledore walked through Diagon Alley, and Dumbledore revealed that Sirius had bought The Daily Prophet.
• Dumbledore and Riddle entered Ollivander's Wand Shop, where Ollivander initially greeted Dumbledore and offered to inspect his wand.
• Riddle introduced himself to Ollivander, who recognized him as Voldemort and dropped his measuring tape in fear.
• Ollivander regained his composure and began taking Riddle's measurements for a wand.

Riddle struggled to find a replacement wand as Ollivander explained the rare properties of wand materials and revealed his Seven Impossible Combinations. The chapter ended with Ollivander identifying the masters of the last two wands: one was unclaimed, and the other belonged to Rubeus Hagrid.

• Ollivander explained how wands reflected their materials and masters, then described the special qualities of Hornbeam Wands.
• Riddle tried nearly a hundred wands without finding one that responded to him.
• Ollivander described the rare Yew Wood and Phoenix Feather wand and introduced the Seven Impossible Combinations.
• Ollivander identified Voldemort's wand and Harry Potter's Holly Wood and Phoenix Feather wand as two of the seven.
• Ollivander said one of the remaining wands had no master and the other belonged to Rubeus Hagrid.

Riddle tested several wands with Unicorn Tail Hair before an elder wand finally chose him, revealing his mother's blessing and a strikingly gentle magical reaction. Ollivander warned Riddle not to follow the dark path of the other Riddle, and Riddle accepted the warning, leaving Dumbledore puzzled by his change.

• Riddle asked to try an elder wand with Unicorn Tail Hair, and Ollivander initially refused before Dumbledore urged him to allow it.
• Ollivander gave Riddle several Unicorn Tail Hair wands, but they trembled until Riddle tried the elder wand.
• The elder wand filled Riddle with his mother's voice and blessing as a gentle white light surrounded him.
• Ollivander explained the wand's rare qualities and warned Riddle not to follow the dark path of the other Riddle.
• Riddle accepted Ollivander's warning, surprising Dumbledore.

Ryan watched Riddle and Dumbledore leave Ollivander’s shop, then used his anchor to observe an event at Malfoy Manor. A figure arrived there by Portkey, disrupting the estate’s tranquil grounds.

• Riddle asked Ollivander about unusual wand cores, including a wand with a Unicorn Heartstring core.
• Ollivander said the Unicorn Heartstring wand already had an owner, and Riddle and Dumbledore left the shop after paying.
• Ryan explained that his anchors let him observe the events of characters he followed, and he watched Malfoy Manor.
• A figure appeared at Malfoy Manor through a conspicuous silver Portkey, startling the white peacocks.

Lucius Malfoy returned to Malfoy Manor shaken after seeing the Dark Lord with Dumbledore, and he told Narcissa what he had learned. The couple began preparing for the coming school year, and Lucius decided to visit Hogwarts with a gift.

• Lucius walked through Malfoy Manor and met Narcissa in the drawing room.
• Narcissa speculated that Arthur Weasley and the Weasleys were behind Lucius's troubled mood and past events.
• Lucius told Narcissa that he had seen the Dark Lord in his youth with Dumbledore and that the Dark Lord would teach Defense Against the Dark Arts next term.
• Narcissa realized Dumbledore had the upper hand and learned that Lucius had sided with him and that the Dark Lord was the diary.
• Narcissa proposed that she and Lucius choose gifts for Sirius, Harry, and Ron, while Lucius said he needed to prepare another gift and visit Hogwarts.